Community college gains new students, buildings

Carroll Community College is growing in buildings and in students to fill them.

A new classroom wing will open this fall as the board of trustees sets in motion a plan to build a new library by the fall of 1995.

Registration continues today, with classes beginning Tuesday.

Vice President Faye Pappalardo said she expects 2,800 to 3,000 students this year. Last fall, the college registered 2,700 students.

"We're steadily increasing in the traditional-age student -- the 18- to 22-year-olds," she said. "That's a sign of a really healthy college.

"We've dropped in the part-time [category], but I think that's a trend across the state," she said.

The new wing of the main building has eight classrooms and four laboratories, along with faculty offices.

The rooms are designed to be flexible, said Alan M. Schuman, vice president of administration. Some classrooms have portable walls between them that can be opened to create larger rooms. The computer lab has 30 computers around the perimeter and a traditional classroom in the middle.

"So, if we have to use it for an English class, we can," Mr. Schuman said.

Two classrooms also will double as a conference suite, with wiring for satellite transmission, teleconferencing and other electronic media. The rooms, with the portable wall opened, will hold 100 people.

The college's board of trustees approved a request last week to the Carroll county commissioners for $2.7 million to build a library and "learning resource center." The state Higher Education Commission has committed $4.1 million to the project contingent on the county funding, said Mr. Schuman.

If all goes as expected, Mr. Schuman said, construction on the library could start in September 1994. The library would open to students by September 1995.

Administrators plan to turn the existing library into a student activities area once the new building is completed, Mr. Schuman said.